Linda Kaljundi

YOUNG CHURCH IN GOD'S NEW VINEYARD
THE MOTIFS OF GROWTH AND FERTILITY IN HENRY'S CHRONICLE OF LIVONIA

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The Chronicle of Henry of Livonia (Heinrici Chronicon Livoniae), written in about 1224-1227, is the most valuable source of information concerning the crusade to Livonia and Estonia in the early 13th century. [1] The chronicle covers a period of about forty years, as it starts with the arrival of the missionary bishop Meinhardus to Livonia in about 1184 and ends with the final conquest and conversion of Estonia in 1227. [2]

Even though the author remains anonymous, it is widely accepted that he was the parish priest Heinricus, who is mentioned several times in the text and who participated actively in the described events. [3]

The text is above all a missionary chronicle, as the author treats the conversion of the heathens as the ultimate goal and evaluates all the events and characters from this point of view. However, in the beginning of the 13th century there were several missionary forces (German, Danish, Swedish and Russian) that tried to establish their power over the lands of Livonia and Estonia. In regard to these Henry´s chronicle is clearly one-sided, as it  focuses on the German mission, the centre of which was in Riga, and aims to describe the Rigan mission as the only legitimate mission in this area.

The conquest of Livonia and Estonia was part of the spread of Christianity to the North, which had involved the successful missions to the Slavic nations and to the Scandinavian kingdoms. [4] Therefore Henry´s chronicle can be treated as part of the tradition of Northern missionary chronicles, the most exemplary works of which are the Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum by Adam of Bremen (d. around 1085), Chronica Slavorum of Helmold of Bosau (around 1120-1170) and Chronica Slavorum by Arnold of Lübeck (d. around 1211-1214). [5] The chronicles were written by clerics and missionaries and represent missionary ideology. Above all, they stress  the concerns related to conversion and the care for the newly baptized people, as well as the opposition of secular and clerical power. A stong emphasis on both the territorial and spiritual interests of the church each author belongs to, is evident in all the texts. Henry´s text shares all these features.

My analysis focuses on one of the characteristics of Henry´s chronicle. Firstly, it has a great number of quotations from the Vulgata and liturgical texts. The total amount of them is about 1100, which is unique even in the context of missionary chronicles. This results in a high level of intertextuality as Henry´s own text is continuously interrupted by biblical or liturgical words, sentences, and phrases. Some of these quotations occur in the text repeatedly. Secondly, the chronicler´s own language is also full of repetitions, as he uses similar phrases and sentences for similar situations. I believe that an in depth analysis of these textual elements, their function and dynamics in the text would contribute significantly to the interpretation of the text as a whole. [6]

For my study I have chosen a small part of these repeated textual elements, focusing on a group of biblical motifs of growth and fertility representing the spread of Christianity.

I analyse five motifs, which are used as allegorical images: vineyard (vinea), new plantation (novella plantatio), sowing (semen seminare), watering (rigare), and the feminine motif (mulier et mater).

I have sought to combine textual and historical analysis, which has resulted in structural and contextual analysis. Firstly, I focus on the allegorical meanings and functions of each motif. I also study their mutual relationships, showing that they create a complex and interlinked textual unit, which takes part in structuring the text as a whole. I claim that even though most of the motifs are in common use in the missionary chronicles named above and in the papal letters, Henry has shown great originality and ability in linking customary images to unique situations and events.

In addition, I have made a short contextual analysis, which aims at treating Henry’s chronicle as a manifestation of missionary and religious ideas common both to the time of religious renewal and the crusades. The analysis partly relies on the studies of Caroline Walker Bynum, especially in regard to the increase of feminine imagery in 12th and 13th century religious writing. [7] I agree with her claim, that

if we trace the networks of images built up by medieval authors and locate those networks in the psyches and social experiences of those who create or use them, we find that they reveal to us what the writers cared about most deeply themselves and what they felt it necessary to present or to justify to others. [8]

I argue that the imagery studied here expresses a tool for an early 13th century cleric to treat and give meaning to the experiences of crusading and mission. To analyse it means to analyse the needs, anxieties and expectations both attributed to the crusade and influenced by the dynamic social and psychological context of it.

The motifs studied here are all part of similar imagery. Vineyard, plantation, sowing and watering are related to the cultivation of land. To this group I have added the feminine motif, as its use refers also to growth and fertility. Already at this primary level of meaning the motifs are linked with each other and create a loosely bound textual unit operating with the notions of fertility, growth and cultivation.

The vineyard motif

The motif occurs in the text seven times. Allegorically the vineyard signifies both the newly baptized land and the young church in Riga (the centre of missionary activity). The image is used to illustrate many key concerns, like the establishment of the mission and the struggles over land possessions with other missionary forces (the Danes and Russians). The image is also applied to the missionaries, as they are indirectly represented as vineyard workers. In the Bible their work often signifies the work of good Christians in God’s vineyard, i.e. in the world. The vineyard is also the symbol of the people of Israel and emphasises the Lord’s concern and care for his people. [9]

The motif is widely used in various sources representing the mission to the North, most outstandingly in the papal letters concerning the Northern and Baltic crusades and in the above-mentioned missionary chronicles.

From Henry’s text we l earn that in the early years of mission the bishop of Riga, Albert, also wished “to extend the vines of the Lord’s vineyard among the pagans“ (vinee Domini palmites extendere in gentibus). [10] Twenty years later, in 1225, the papal legate Guillelmus of Modena already finds “the God’s vineyard so gloriously planted /…/ and that it had grown so much and so far that branches extended for a ten-day journey” (vineam Dei tam gloriose plantatam /…/ et tantam et in tantum dilatatam invenit, ut ramos suos ad decem dietas /…/ extenderet). [11]

Henry also uses the image of “planted vineyard” (vinea plantata) to refer to recently baptized lands and villages. [12] He even calls “the planting of the Lord’s vineyard” the Rigans' main aim (vineam Domini plantandam). [13] In passages describing the strife between the Rigan and Danish missions over Northern Estonia, the image becomes part of the rhetoric used to support the Rigan claim. [14] We learn that the Rigan priest claim that the vineyard (i.e. the baptized parts of Estonia) “has been planted by the zeal of the pilgrims and the labor of the Rigans through the Blessed Virgin’s banner” (vineam ipsam per vexillum beate Virginis studio peregrinorum et Rigensium labore plantatam affirmarunt). [15] The Danish priests have come here as if “into a foreign harvest” (quasi in alienam missem). [16] When the Danes tell the Rigans that they should “not to pluck the hanging clusters of grapes” (ne racemos dependentes colligerent), [17] bishop Albert answers that “the vineyard of the Estonian church had been planted by his people for many years before the time of the Danes` coming, it had been cultivated by the blood of many men and by the many sufferings of war” (vineam ipsam Estiensis ecclesie pluribus annis ante tempora Danorum a suis iam dudum plantatam, sanguine multorum et bellorum incommodis multis excultam). [18]   Here the vineyard motif is linked to several dominant ideas, like the legitimacy of the Rigan mission, the patronage of the Virgin Mary and the hardships of missionary work. It is also linked to other motifs of the above-described group, as we see later on.

The motif of the new plantation

Similarly the image of the new plantation is used to describe the spread of Christianity and the growth of the young church. The church in Riga is even called “the church of the new plantation” (novellae plantationis ecclesia). [19] However, the motif occurs in the text only three times.

At the beginning of the mission it is said to be God’s wish “to strengthen the new plantation of the Christian faith and to confirm peace to it all around” (novellam plantacionem fidei christiane propagare et ei pacem ubique firmare). [20] And in the last third of the chronicle bishop Albert is still called to keep peace with his neighbours “until the new plantation was firmly established; after that he could build a structure over it” (donec novelle plantacioni firmum postmodum superedificaretur edificum). [21] Hence the image expresses wishes and expectations rather than results.

Robert Bartlett has shown in his “The Making of Europe: Colonisation, Conquest and Cultural Change” that the image of the new plantation is rather common in the texts that describe the spread of Christianity to Eastern Europe. [22] The centre of these descriptions is the time of conquest, which is contrasted to the previous age of wilderness as the new age of peace and order. Here the image of the new plantation is frequently applied to new settlements and the cultivation of new lands. However, in Henry’s text the image refers solely to the church and not to the settlements, differing from the previous tradition.

The motif of sowing

The image of sowing signifies primarily the spread of faith and preaching. The motif occurs in the text seven times and it is used merely in the descriptions of the events in which the chronicler himself had taken part. The expression semen seminare originates from the parable of the sower from the Gospels (Mt.13:3-9; Mk. 4:3-9,14-20; Lk. 8:4-7,11-15). However, no clearer allusion to the parable can be perceived.

In 1206 Henry took part in a missionary trip to the Livs, where they “sowed the word of God” (seminato /…/  verbi Dei semine).[23] One of the priests decided to stay with the people, “to sow the seed of the Gospel and to build a church” (semen ewangelii seminare et ecclesiam /…/ edificare). [24] The others return to Riga, “commiting to the Lord the now planted vineyard and sown field” (vineam iam plantatam et agrum seminatum Domino commitens). [25] Here both the images of vineyard and sowing represent the results of the mission. Much later, in 1220, when Henry was working as a missionary in Estonia, he says of himself that he went to “sow the seed of Christian doctrine” (doctrine christiane semina spargere). [26]

From the summer of 1225 until the summer of 1226 the papal legate Guillelmus of Modena visited the newly baptized lands. [27] Henry was his attendant and translator throughout the journey. [28] We learn that the legate “sows the seed of the Gospels to all, taught them [i.e. the neophytes] to bear good fruit” (semen ewangelicum /…/ seminavit fructumque bonum referre docebat) [29] and that he “sowed the seed of holy doctrine” (seminato doctrine sancte semine). [30] While leaving Livonia, he discovered that Estonians had raided in Sweden and he exceptionally “sowed the word of God” (verbum Dei seminavit) not to preach, but to take revenge on them. [31]  

The motif of watering

The motif is made up of two verbs, rigare (to moisten) and irrigare (to water). The alliterative association of these verbs with Riga enables Henry to stress that Riga’s main aim is to baptize the heathens, i.e. to water or moisten them with baptismal water.

In 1201 bishop Albert established Riga as the new centre for mission in Livonia. The Livs were said to have called the place Riga,

“either from Lake Riga, or from irrigation, since it is irrigated both from below and from above. It is irrigated from below for, as they say, it is well moistened in its waters and pastures; or since the plenary remission of sins is administered in it to the sinners, the irrigation from above, that is the kingdom of heaven is thus administered through it, or in other words, Riga, refreshed by the water of the new faith waters the neighbouring tribes round about through the holy font of baptism.”

( /…/, quam et Rigam appellant, vel a Riga lacu vel quasi irriguam, cum habeat inferius irriguum ac irriguum superius. Irriguum inferius, eo quod sit aquis et pascuis irrigua vel eo quod ministratur in ea peccatoribus plenaria peccaminum remissio et per eam irriguum superius, quod est regnum celorum, per consequens ministratur; vel Riga nova fide rigata et quia per eam gentes in circuitu sacro baptismatis fonte rigantur.) [32]

The motif frames the whole text. For the first time it occurs in the opening verse of the chronicle: “to water and to give the holiest heavenly gifts to the land” (irrigui sacra donaque celicavult dare terra).  Finally, in the opening verse of the last paragraph the author can rejoice over the fulfilment of their goal:

“Thus does Riga always water then nations! Thus did she now water Ösel in the middle of the sea. By washing she purges sin and grants the kingdom of the skies. She furnishes both the higher and the lower irrigation.”

(Sic, sic Riga semper rigat gentes! Sic maris in medio nunc rigat Osiliam, Per lavacrum purgans vitium, dans regna polorum, Altius irriguum donat et inferius). [33]

Throughout the text the motif is frequently used in the descriptions of missionary trips and in the appeals to accept baptism, which were made to the heathens. Altogether the motif occurs about thirty times.

What is interesting is its relationship with the other images discussed above. It can be followed in three passages, all describing events important to the Rigan church. In 1220, a large-scale missionary trip to Estonia took place. There the priests “sowed the seed of Christian doctrine and watered the villages lying round about from the holy font of regeneration” (incipientes /…/ doctrine christiane semina spargere, villas circumiacentes sacro regenerationis fonte rigabant). [34] Hence the image of sowing is followed immediately by the image of watering. The same year another mission to Estonia took place; after finishing their journey the priests went back to Livonia and “committed the vineyard they had planted and watered from the holy font to God, who would make it grow” (vineam plantatam et sacro fonte rigatam Deo, qui incrementum daturus erat, commintentes). [35] Here the events are given in their natural order: first the vineyard is planted, then it is watered and finally it starts to grow. This image appears once more, in a slightly different way. When Guillelmus of Modena rejoices over “God’s vineyard”, it is said that the vineyard is “watered with the blood of so many of the faithful” (vineam Dei tam gloriose plantatam et ecclesiam fidelium sanguine multorum irrigatam). [36] The blood refers to the sacrifices made in the course of missionary work and to the martyrs; on the other hand it is also linked to the watering and growth of plants, i.e. the church and its members.  Here the use of the watering motif enables to bind all the above-discussed motifs together for a linked and complex picture describing the missionary work and its effect on the growth of the church.

Hence the Rigans are presented as planters (the planters of the vineyard of God) and sowers (the sowers of the word of God), as well as waterers. Together with the image of baptized land and people as farmland, a dynamic imagery is created for the whole process of conversion – as a process of cultivation.

As in the Bible, the vineyard workers refer to the people of Israel and the sowers refer to the apostles, the Rigans are here indirectly compared also with the selected ones of both the Old and New Testament. This is in accordance with one of the dominant ideas of the chronicle, according to which God always acts through the hands of a few, i.e. through the hands of the selected. In addition, the comparison of Riga with Israel and/or the city of Jerusalem occurs in some other passages. Even though Henry does not refer directly to the imitatio apostolorum (a theme that had become more popular around his time), there also are some references to the primal church and to the time of the apostles in his text.

In general the imagery of the above-mentioned motifs is rather clearly divided into two parts, referring to the missionaries and crusaders as the active and authoritative agents, as planters and sowers (i.e. cultivators), and the baptized peoples as the passive and receptive agents, as the land (i.e. the one being cultivated).

The feminine motif

The imagery of growth and fertility attributed to the mission and young church is also linked to feminine imagery.  The feminine motif is used to describe the Rigan church as a woman and a mother. The image is based on a widely used allegory of the church as a woman and a bride. Here the dominant image is that of a fertile woman, a mother and a birth-giver.

There are two instances of the image of a young birth-giving woman who is pursued by a dragon. After a battle was lost to the Estonians in 1210 the church is described “like a woman whom the dragon followed but did not overtake” (tamquam /…/ mulier, quam draco persequitur, sed non opprimit). [37] When in 1224 the Russian troops had caused many losses to the Rigans, the church is said to be “like the woman in labor, who has great  sorrow and anguish until she gives birth, in pursuit of her offspring there comes a dragon” (tamquam mulier pariens, quam tristiciam et dolorem magnum habet, donec pariat; cuius eciam partum draco persequitur). [38] The image originates from the Apocalypse: in general the woman signifies humankind and the dragon demonic forces. On one hand the image stresses the dangers and hardships that the building of a new church in a foreign and hostile land has brought. The dragon symbolises the external enemies and the woman giving birth symbolises the pains and sacrifices the missionary church has to experience. On the other hand it clearly emphasizes the active and productive role of the Rigan church, as it refers to giving birth and fertility, i.e. giving birth to a new church and extending her congregation.

The image is also connected to the issues of authority and domination of the church over the newly baptized people, describing their relationship as that between a mother and her children. Hence, the rebel Livs were “still sanguinary sons who tore at the breast of Mother church” (adhuc filii sanguinarii, lacerantes ubera matris ecclesie). [39]

The issues of authority and power rose again when the struggle over Estonian lands begins with the Danes and the Russians. Here the image of a mother and a daughter is used to stress the connections between the Livonian and the Estonian church. The latter is described as the daughter of the Livonian church, who has always been the “true and original mother” of the Estonian church (vera et prima semper mater). [40] To say that the Rigan church has given birth to the Estonian church “by the labor of conquest (per labores expugnationis) and the washing of regeneration in the faith of Jesus Christ” (que genuerat eam per lavacrum regenerationis in fide Iesu Christi), [41] is to declare her rights to Estonian lands. Yet it also emphasizes once more the fertility of the Livonian church, which has ”to free her daughter, the Estonian church, which she conceived by Jesus Christ” (ut ergo Lyvonensis ecclesia filiam suam Estiensem ecclesiam, quam genuerat Iesu Christo, liberaret). [42] Such rhetoric is necessary because of the “many mothers, indeed, claimed this daughter falsely and always drew her to them by their lies” (plures sibi matres falso filiam hanc usurpantes, mentientes semper, attraxerint). [43] One of the mothers is “the Russian mother, always sterile and barren” (mater Ruthenica sterilis semper et infecunda). [44] The other mother, here not directly referred to, is Danish. However, in another passage Henry also refers to the infertility of the Danish church. When the Danish queen dies during childbirth, it is said that now

“the new church, which daily was to give birth to spiritual offspring and which was at that time given over to the power of this king, would undoubtedly be endangered for the period of his reign.”

(novellam ecclesiam, tunc in potestatem regis ipsius traditam, que paritura erat cottidie prolem spiritualem, temporibus sui principatus indubitanter periclitandam). [45]

Hence the Rigan church is described as fertile (its productivity can only be disturbed by alien interference, but it cannot be unfertile by itself) and therefore legitimate. The other missions, by contrast, are considered infertile (unable to give birth as they are, they can only try to take a part in another’s harvest).

The triumph of the Rigan mission is presented at the end of the chronicle, when the Rigan priests rejoice over that they have “by the bath of regeneration they were producing so many thousands of spiritual children for the Lord and a beloved new spouse for God from among the heathen” (eo quod Domino tot milia genuerunt per lavacrum regenerationis prolem spiritualem, Deo dilectam sponsam novam ex gentibus). [46] Here the Livonian church has the image of a young, fertile, birth-giving woman, who has many children. However, this is also the only passage where the image of a woman is linked to positive events, as in all other cases it is used to describe the situations where hostile forces endanger Riga. This is also the only passage where the female image is applied to the priests, not to the church in general.

The use of the feminine imagery is probably influenced by Henry’s claim that the Virgin Mary was the patroness of the Livonian mission [47] and by the fact that her role is steadily emphasized in the chronicle. [48] This claim makes the feminine imagery even more easily applicable to the Rigan church. The Virgin Mary herself is depicted throughout the text as loving, tender, maternal, humane, and intimate, which harmonizes well with the new image of Mary that developed in the 12th century, especially among the Cistercians. However, as a patroness of a crusade she has the especially active characteristics as well, as she is to help the missionaries to give birth to a new church and to protect the Rigans in military actions.

In general the feminine imagery of the chronicle contains several images borrowed from uniquely feminine experiences. However, as shown above, it focuses chiefly on the active feminine roles, like giving birth and the need to protect her child, symbolising the birthing to a new church. The image of a birth-giving woman nevertheless involves also suffering and   pain. This signifies the hardships the mission had to undergo, which is one of the dominant themes of the text, as shown above. In contrast, Henry’s feminine imagery does not touch upon the more passive role of nurturing or nursing (as compared to giving birth), which is often seen in relationship with the concerns for pastoral care.

Such imagery is probably influenced by its context, as the crusade and the mission give the text a clear and vigorous context. It is dynamic, expanding, and active. It is the time of expansion and fighting, not yet of settlement. Hence his imagery is active and dynamic.

This is reflected also in the maternal imagery of the church. It deals with the questions of power and domination; it also supports the authoritativeness and legitimacy of the new institution. In this aspect the feminine imagery is similar to the active role applied to authoritative male figures, the missionary priests represented as planters and sowers.

In conclusion, the motifs of planting, sowing and watering in the new vineyard, the plantation of God and the motif of feminine fertility form complex textual units which deal mainly with the dynamics of the mission and are linked to the dominant themes of the chronicle. They are used for describing the spread of Christianity and the legitimacy of the Rigan mission. Therefore they contribute significantly to the image of the newly founded Rigan church and through quotations from religious texts they link the history of the Rigan church with the sacred history of Scripture. The motifs also form an independent whole in the text and show that the old beliefs relating to growth and fertility survive in medieval religious culture.

Biblia Sacra iuxta vulgatam versionem. Deutsche Bibelgesellchaft, Stuttgart 1994.

The Chronicle of Henry of Livonia.Trans. James A. Brundage. The University of Wisconsin Press, Madison 1961

Heinrici Chronicon Livoniae= Heinrichs Livländische Chronik. Scirptores rerum Germanicarum in usum scholarum ex monumentis Germaniae historicis separatim editi. Ed. Leonid Arbusow and Albert Bauer. Hahnsche Buchhandlung, Hannover 1955.

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